Saint Lawrence of Brindisi

At that time, a significant event suddenly changed the way of life of our Blessed one; a Turkish fleet, which had long been sailing along the coasts of Apulia, landed one day in the country an army of heretics who reduced the episcopal city of Castro to ashes; terror seized the whole region, and the parents of Julius Caesar, his mother and his uncle, went to take refuge with him in Venice, to escape the devast Venise Final location of the transfer of relics in 1200. ating scourge. The fugitives found shelter with the uncle of Rossi, who still lived in that city. This worthy man, a secular priest, was in charge of receiving into his home and governing the young men who followed the lessons of the Saint Mark's College of that city; gifted with great knowledge and deep piety, he received his nephew with joy among his disciples; he already knew what a treasure of goodness, piety, and intelligence he had just acquired, and he neglected nothing to make this young tree full of promise bear all the happy fruits that one had the right to expect from it. The students of the Saint Mark's school wore a cassock, and Julius Caesar had to leave his Franciscan robe to take on this new costume; but such was the respect that one already had for him, and such also the confidence in the excellence of his life, already filled with the favors of heaven, that some of his relatives piously collected the habit he had just taken off and kept it as a precious relic; the simple contact of this holy object inflamed their hearts with divine love, and the apostolic process opened in Venice for the canonization of our Blessed one reports that it performed several wonders.

The gift of miracles fell to our Blessed one early on, and this is how the Lord permitted its first manifestation. It was a day of great celebration in Venice; the Doge was celebrating, according to custom, his betrothal to the sea, and the waves disappeared under the multitude of gondolas that crisscrossed them in all directions, escorting and cheering the prince's galley, proudly seated in the midst of his senators in purple robes and in great pomp. Julius Caesar and his pious family had fled the city and its festivities to spend the day in a Capuchin convent that they often visited, on the other side of the water. Suddenly, a frightful storm gathered in the clouds and threatened to swallow the fragile apparatus of these worldly demonstrations; at this moment Julius Caesar was crossing the strait; standing at the bow of the boat, his hands crossed on his chest, he addressed a fervent prayer to the Lord; his arm, inspired, extended over the waves to conjure them in the name of the Almighty God. O wonder! The clouds dissipated, the waves calmed along with the anger of the sky, and the faces, passing from fear to hope, turned with gratitude toward the one who, with a sign of the cross, had just saved a whole people from an inevitable shipwreck. But he had barely touched the shore when he slipped away from the cheers of the crowd; his heart too was full of gratitude; he was in a hurry to reach his retreat to prostrate himself at the feet of the Savior and thank Him with effusion for having used such a weak arm to perform such a great wonder.

However, the voice of the Lord, which had called Julius Caesar to the cloister, had not ceased to make itself heard to him; among his uncle's students, he had met one who had vowed a particular affection for him and who was the worthy confidant of his secret aspirations. When their studies left them some leisure, they would go together to the Capuchins, whose austere and regular life particularly seduced them; they conferred with them, prayed in their church, and even followed them to the refectory, so drawn were they to a way of life so in accordance with their tastes and desires. Soon, no longer doubting their vocation, the two friends opened up to the Fathers of the convent, who led them to the provincial, the only one charged with admitting or dismissing applicants. Father Lawrence of Bergamo, as the provincial was named, wished to assure himself of the dispositions of our two young men and subject them to a test; without questioning them at all about their past life, their parents, or their studies, he led them into a cell, and in this humble retreat painted a grim picture of the sacrifices they would have to make, the austerities that religious life entails, and the pains and fatigues of all kinds they would have to endure; then, showing them the bare walls and the empty room, he spoke to them of prayer as the only charm they would have to hope for in this retreat.

"Let this cell contain a crucifix," cried Julius, "and it will be for me more beautiful than the sumptuous halls of the richest palaces." At this manly response, the provincial understood that the vocation of these two young men came from above; moved to tears by such heroic courage, he had them registered among the applicants, and soon he gave them a letter of obedience so that they might go to Verona, to the novitiate convent.

It was on February 18, 1575, that Julius Caesar entered the Capuchins of Verona; these religious were soon able to know the treasure they had acquired and possessed. Attentive to all his duties, the first at all the offices of the day and night, faithful in the observation of the smallest points of the Rule, submissive to his superiors and respectful to his brothers, Julius attracted the affection of all. He added several fasts and many austerities to those prescribed by the Rule of Saint Francis. Finding his only happiness in conversing with God, the time for prayer always seemed too short to him; what further raised his merit was that, although he fulfilled his obligations with the most scrupulous exactitude, he avoided singularity in everything. Far from this austere life altering the serenity of his soul, he had preserved something of the naivety of childhood, and he mingled naturally in the innocent recreations granted to the novices; it is reported that he loved to caress a little lamb in the garden with which he played, because the gentleness and innocence of this animal reminded him of those of the divine Savior who had chosen it as a symbol. At the end of his year of probation, he took his vows and took the name Lawrence, by which he was known thereafter; this is how we shall call him from now on. Although it is customary among the Capuchins that sub jects w Laurent Capuchin friar, Doctor of the Church, diplomat, and preacher. ho have just made their profession remain for two or three years under the direction of a guardian, so that they may be strengthened in the piety they should have acquired during their novitiate, the superiors believed they could without any danger dispense Lawrence from this new test, and sent him immediately to finish his studies in Padua. Lawrence applied himself there with extraordinary ardor; he understood that science and literature open immense horizons to the studious man, and that, if piety and devotion do not always draw new strength from them, at least one always finds there a source of enjoyment and victories unknown to less cultivated minds; through his solid and well-directed studies, he prepared himself, perhaps without knowing it, for the difficult ministry he would have to fulfill later with the great powers of Europe; his mind was loosened and made flexible in the reading of the Holy Scripture and the Fathers of the Church, which he had come to understand in their original languages, Hebrew, Greek, or Latin; the great lessons of the past, the magnificent teachings of the doctors became familiar to him; history, philosophy, and theology no longer had any secrets for him, and when he later had to discuss with the Jews, to combat heresy, or to defend, in many delicate circumstances, the interests of the faith and the Church, he always entered the lists fully armed, equally skilled in attack and defense, strong in his flawless breastplate and his armor tempered in the right furnace.

Lawrence was aided in his passion for study by a prodigious memory. To cite but one example, he one day attended the sermon of a famous Dominican preacher; he listened to it with such sustained attention that, upon his return to the convent, he was able to transcribe it word for word; the Dominican, informed of this fact, refused to believe it; he went to the guardian of the Capuchins to ascertain the truth; but when he had gone through Lawrence's manuscript, he was forced to admit that it was completely and literally in conformity with his own.

Our Blessed one was not to delay in putting into practice the lessons he had drawn from reading the Bible and Christian authors; although the important ministry of preaching the word of God is not ordinarily entrusted to deacons, the distinguished talents and exemplary piety of Lawrence determined his superiors to have him ascend the pulpit before he was promoted to the priesthood; if he did not feel great joy, modest and distrustful of himself as he was, he did it out of obedience. It was in Venice, in the church of Saint John, in the presence of his family, that our religious made himself heard for the first time; from the very first words, one could be persuaded that he would not disappoint the hopes that had been placed in him. His speech, full and sonorous, commanded and captivated attention at once; then it became insinuating and penetrated deeper into hearts; when he had thus prepared them and held them as if hanging on his lips, he gave free rein to the floods of his eloquence and spread everywhere with profusion the lights of truth. Thus, from the first days of the Lent that he preached in Venice, many stray souls went to the tribunal of penance, brought back to the fold by the penetrating word of Lawrence; one woman, among others, rich and beautiful, but who had allowed herself to be corrupted by contact with the luxury and pleasures of the world, could not resist the unction of his discourses; at first rebellious to the truth that flowed from the lips of the inspired preacher, voluntarily closing her eyes to the evidence, she soon felt herself conquered by the power of the man of God: her heart opened in spite of herself, the light penetrated it, remorse then invaded it, and her eyes, unsealed, could not hold back her tears; humble and confused as much as she had been proud and guilty, she wished to immediately abjure her errors at the feet of the minister of the Lord; she regained the peace of her soul and appeared no more in this world that she had loved too much, except to edify it by her piety and her repentance.

Genoa, Naples, Pavia, Padua, Verona, Vicenza, resounded in turn with the brilliance of this powerful word; Lawrence gathered on his path the testimonies of the enthusiasm that his talent aroused, and, what was much more sensitive to him, the conversions of sinners. One day, in Vicenza, he was called to a sick child: "May the Blessed Virgin come to your aid and restore your health," said the religious while making the sign of the cross over her; and the young girl was able to get up immediately to go to the church to thank her benefactress. Such miracles increased even more the faith that people had in him. In Padua, he rose with force against the disorders in which the young men who frequented the University publicly indulged; the incredulous and curious youth who had invaded the church strove in vain to oppose irony and sarcasm to the language of truth that Lawrence spoke. The faces soon became serious, the hardened hearts softened; the word of the Blessed one was like a mysterious seed which, barely spread, germinated and bore its fruits; how many of these young men, just before so dissolute and so impious, implored with tears the divine clemency, and asked for mercy from the flaming sword that had wounded them while flooding them with light; thus the disorders disappeared, and those who, in spite of all the exhortations, remained attached to vices, had to seek the shadows and flee the public gaze.

Our humble religious wanted to be content with the order of deacon that he had received; the holiness of the priestly character and the importance of its functions, while filling him with fear, prevented him from aspiring to it. When his friends pressed him on this point, he defended himself by citing the example of Saint Francis who, despite his high piety, the signaled favors and the graces that he obtained from heaven, never let himself be persuaded to receive the priesthood. But the humility of Lawrence could not resist obedience; he was promoted to the priesthood, determined by the command that his superiors had given him; he prepared himself for this holy ceremony by long exercises of penance and by prayer. After his ordination, he resumed the works of the evangelical ministry. An important mission was reserved for him, which required a man nourished like him in strong studies, and which he acquitted himself of to his praise and to the glory of the Christian name: it was no longer the preacher who was going to let the floods of his compelling eloquence overflow onto an attentive and moved crowd, it was the scholar, the theologian, who was going to use his erudition and his ruthless logic to confound the error and false science of the most terrible enemies of the faith. Informed of the merit of Father Lawrence, Pope Clement VIII did not find an instrumen t more worthy of pape Clément VIII Pope who approved the reform of the Trinitarians. the high designs he was meditating on the conversion of the Jews whose errors he deplored while ardently desiring to enlighten them; he therefore had him come, and having communicated his intentions to him, blessed him and had him descend into the arena. With him, no bias, no prejudice or animosity: a Hebrew Bible in hand, he went into the midst of the rabbis who, seeing him so full of his subject and so familiar with the language he spoke to them, took him at first for one of their own; his affable manners, his courteous and polite tone reconciled the benevolence of his adversaries to him at first; they were curious to hear him, they pressed in a crowd around him; interest gave way to distrust, and the attention of the audience encouraged the champion of the Catholic faith. The conversations were frequent, they multiplied; Brother Lawrence drew from his faith and his erudition irresistible arguments; the crowd of Jews was moved; ignorant like all crowds, it allowed itself to be won over by the insinuations of the religious. O triumph! some of the most solid pillars of Judaism aligned with his opinion, doubt invaded the others, and a considerable number of proselytes came to ask for baptism, without the rabbis who remained faithful to their errors being able to grant the soldier of Jesus Christ anything other than admiration.

Charmed by this result, Pope Clement VIII, who was then in Ferrara, sent for Brother Lawrence; he had him preach publicly before him in his own chapel, and did not spare him the expression of his satisfaction and gratitude. These astonishing successes soon earned Father Lawrence the highest dignities of his Order. In 1587, he was tasked with teaching theology and Holy Scripture in the province of Venice; in 1590, barely thirty-one years old, he was elected guardian by a unanimous vote in the chapter held in Padua by the chapter of that province; his humility and modesty suffered inwardly from all these honors; he submitted to them out of obedience and fulfilled these various functions to the satisfaction of all. The following year, he was provincial in Tuscany; then, some time later, in Venice. We shall pass quickly over the details of his administration, which was as prudent as it was skillful, and we shall speak of this period of his life only to cite a few miracles that will sufficiently prove with what favors God never ceased to sow the career of our Blessed one. Here are three that we borrow from the life of our Saint by the Reverend Father Lawrence of Aosta.

"Among the crowd that pressed (in Venice) to the Capuchin convent, there was one day a poor blind man who had had himself led there in the hope of being able to recommend himself to the prayers of the holy provincial, and to obtain his healing through them. Unable to reach Father Lawrence, he begged those around him in a loud voice to lead him to him. His confidence was not deceived; the Blessed one, having caught sight of him, approached our blind man himself, and made the sign of the cross over his eyes. This same sign which, in the same hand, had already, fifteen years earlier, calmed the waves of the Adriatic, exercising the same power again, suddenly opened the eyes of this unfortunate man to the light. At the sight of this miracle, proclaimed with all the effusion of gratitude by the one who had been its object, the crowd, astonished and moved, gave way to its enthusiasm and carried the thaumaturge in triumph.

Another time, "as he was traveling from Padua to the convent of Bassano, two women possessed by the devil were presented to him. Using then the power that God had given him over this spirit of darkness, Father Lawrence made the sign of the cross over them, ordering it, in the name of Jesus, to cease instantly from tormenting these creatures of God. One of them was immediately delivered, and, turning toward the other, our Blessed one said to her: 'My daughter, go in peace and be comforted; the Lord will leave you in affliction for some time yet, but the day is not far off when it will cease'." The exact truth of this prediction was recognized later.

"A doctor from Verona, who did not pride himself much on religion, had vainly exhausted all the resources of his art and his tenderness to heal his wife, who was suffering from a mortal illness. In his grief and despair, he learned of the arrival of the holy provincial of the Capuchins, of whom he had heard so many wonders told. Although he had until then shown himself incredulous on this subject, solicited by some members of his family, he went to find him to beg him to come and see his wife. Father Lawrence welcomed this request with kindness, and went to the sick woman. He first exhorted her to bring back her faith and to place all her trust in God; then he laid his hands on her and healed her radically. Transported with joy and gratitude, the husband published everywhere that Father Lawrence had resurrected his wife, since she had an incurable ailment that was naturally destined to lead her to the grave in a few days; and then another kind of prodigy was seen to occur: The doctor's colleagues, who had often been consulted on this woman's illness, penetrated by the same sentiments, humbly recognizing that health and sickness, life and death, are in the hands of God, and that all the efforts of human faculties remain powerless and ineffective unless God blesses them, conceived the happy thought of presenting to the provincial all the sick of the city, in the hope of obtaining for them the same favor through his prayers. An act of faith as lively and as striking was to be rewarded, and was indeed, by a great number of healings, among which one can cite that of two women, one of whom, suffering from cancer, was delivered from it by a sign of the cross and without any trace of the evil remaining on her; and the other saw frequent epileptic seizures disappear forever, by eating the remainder of a bread served to her liberator."

In 1596, Father Lawrence was sent as a deputy to the general chapter held in Rome; he was only thirty-nine years old at the time, but less attention was paid to his age than to his merit, and he was named definitor general, one of the highest and most important positions in the Order. In this post, he rendered great services to his congregation and to the public, for his capacity in affairs was no less great than his talent for eloquence. An admirable prudence tempered the zeal that animated him; he knew perfectly when it was necessary to press and when it was necessary to yield; he knew the time to speak and the time to be silent, and whether he was dealing with his superiors, his equals, or his inferiors, he adapted his manners and his speech very well to the circumstances.

Here begins for Father Lawrence what one might call his political role, if, in the various missions he had to fulfill with the most illustrious sovereigns of Europe, the interests of faith and religion had not always been his sole preoccupation and the only goal of his negotiations. We see him first leave for Germany, with eleven brothers of his Order and two lay brothers, to establish Capuchin convents in Prague and Vienna; welcomed at first with kindness by Archduke Matthias, who governed the empire in the absence of his brother Rudolph, who was detained in Hungary by the threate ning arm Rodolphe Holy Roman Emperor. aments of Turkey, Father Lawrence soon encountered the ill will and obstacles of heretics and enemies of the faith; the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe, a hardened Protestant, governed the mind of the emperor as he pleased, teaching him the sciences: his influence over this prince was such that he determined him to reject the advances of the Capuchins, and even to drive them from the empire. Already the religious were gathering their bags and their staffs; Father Lawrence enclosed in his case the small statue of the Blessed Virgin that he had brought from Italy as a holy protectress of the work he wished to accomplish; in touching farewells, the holy religious recalled the sacred goal that had led him to Germany, the modesty of his pretensions, his regrets at being obliged to return to the open sea after having glimpsed the port and deliverance; the good Catholics, among whom were princes and ministers of the empire, could not hide their emotion and their tears. Guided by the finger of God, so visible in all these events, they went to find the emperor and threw themselves at his feet. Then occurred a scene that the author we have already cited recounts as follows:

"Sire," they said, "we are filled with the deepest sorrow because of the departure of the Capuchin Fathers. We have just heard Father Lawrence; he bade us such touching farewells that we could not help but weep." — "But," said Rudolph, "how will they manage to carry all their luggage back to Italy?" — "Let Your Majesty have no concern about that: the Father Commissary has publicly protested that, having come here carrying with them only a crucifix, a breviary, and a traveling staff, they would take nothing with them but these three things." Then the emperor, troubled and visibly moved, cried out, raising eyes full of tears and repentance toward heaven: "Father Lawrence is an apostle! He is a saint! I cannot banish these religious; they shall not leave, I do not want them to leave, I will not have it!" Thus was realized the prophecy of Father Lawrence, who said to his brothers to exhort them to patience: "It is God's cause, He will know how to defend it." The emperor's dispositions being thus happily modified, our religious were able to found three convents in Prague, Vienna, and Graz, which were the origin of the three provinces of the Order of Saint Francis in Austria, Bohemia, and Styria.

The institution of these three convents established close relations between the religious and the emperor, of which both had only to congratulate themselves; the opportunity soon presented itself for Rudolph to take advantage of the eminent qualities he had recognized in Father Lawrence, and when he needed, in the face of the ever-increasing threats of the Turks on the borders of the empire, to appeal to his neighbors to help him repel an imminent attack, he found no one more worthy of such a mission than the holy religious whose reputation for piety and prudence was already universal. The Father left immediately and succeeded fully: his warm words swayed all the princes of Germany, even the most timid; aid in men and money arrived from all sides, and an imposing army was assembled under the orders of Archduke Matthias. But it was not enough for Rudolph that Father Lawrence's assistance had helped him double his forces; he felt that a man of such good counsel and such ardent faith would be of great help in the very midst of the army, and, sure in advance of the holy religious's consent, he asked the Pope for the favor of granting this chaplain general to his troops. Father Lawrence was then seen in the midst of the camps, everywhere exhorting the soldiers to discipline, reminding them that they were above all Christians and that they must trust in God before counting on their swords. When the day of battle arrived, he mounted a horse and appeared in the front ranks, dressed in his religious habit and with the crucifix in his hand. The attack of the Turks was furious, but the Catholic army resisted and gathered around the man of God: it rushed in his wake and in turn charged the infidels vigorously; for a moment Father Lawrence was surrounded by the enemy; he was freed, and when they tried to signal to him that this was not his place, he said: "You are mistaken, this is indeed where I must be; let us advance, let us advance, and the victory is ours." At these words, the momentum of the troops was such that the enemy, routed and struck with terror, fled in all directions. During the beatification of the Blessed, one could see, above one of the doors of the Vatican, a medallion recalling this glorious episode of his life, with this inscription: "Blessed Lawrence of Brindisi saves Austria in distress, and, crucifix in hand, puts to rout the enemies of the Christian name."

This victory brought about the retreat of the Turks from all the positions they occupied beyond the Danube, and made it impossible for them for a long time to attempt anything against the hand that had just chastised them so harshly. As for Father Lawrence, his glory increased even more: the emperor and the Christian princes showered him with thanks and praise; what was much more significant to him was the friendship shown to him by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and the Duke of Mercœur who, a new crusader, had equipped a small troop at his own expense and left France to enlist under the Catholic ba nners against duc de Mercœur French military leader who fought against the Turks in Hungary. the infidels; this close, indissoluble friendship touched Father Lawrence to the heart; when he had to separate from the Duke of Mercœur, whom he was never to see again, he shed abundant tears, and the noble duke, who never forgot his companion in victory, favored the Capuchins of France with special gifts in his honor.

The war having ended in the extraordinary manner we have just reported, Father Lawrence immediately thought of leaving Germany; he took leave of the emperor, who saw him depart only with difficulty, and he set out for Italy. He stopped, however, at Gratz, at the convent he had just founded; he found everything flourishing there and spent the Easter holidays there. On Holy Thursday, the Fathers gathered in the chapel were prostrate in prayer, when a dazzling light suddenly invaded the choir: in the midst of a halo of glory, and surrounded by legions of angels, the divine Master himself appeared, approached Father Lawrence, and gave him communion with his own hand; the other religious each received in their turn the divine food from the very hands of the Lord, who disappeared with the dazzling brightness that surrounded him once he had accomplished this charitable office; this miracle, attested to by all the witnesses, testifies once more to the goodness of God for our Blessed one, and to the signal favors with which He thought it just to reward his zeal and piety.

If Father Lawrence had cared the least for the dignities that most men seek so avidly, he would have been greatly satisfied with the new honor that awaited him in Rome when, after having traveled throughout Italy amidst the ovations he tried in vain to avoid, he arrived in Rome for the meeting of the chapter of his Order; by unanimous vote, he was named General of all the Orders of Saint Francis, despite his reluctance for such functions and his repeated denials. The Pope having approved the election, the holy man had to submit, and he had no other thoughts than to show himself worthy of the unlimited confidence placed in him. He set out immediately to begin the visitation of the different provinces of the Order, and one can say without fear of exceeding the truth that this arduous and difficult work of inspection, regulation, and reform, accomplished with admirable zeal, devotion, and tact, will constitute in the eyes of posterity the most beautiful period of his life and the most meritorious, if not the most brilliant and the most admired. Everywhere on his path, he is surrounded, he is acclaimed: "There is the Saint, there is the Saint"; but he slips away from these enthusiastic demonstrations; he reaches the convent that is the goal of his journey, and, before taking any rest, he visits in every detail the places he has come to inspect; he has an exact account rendered of the material and moral situation of his brothers, their resources, their expenses, their needs. Here it is a poor and bare church that he encounters next to a comfortable and almost luxurious dwelling; he makes severe reproaches to the guardian: "God first, you second," he says almost rudely; "are you not ashamed of all these paintings, of all these rich hangings, of this burning hearth and this well-stocked table, when next to you your chapel threatens to fall into ruin, and the rain of heaven floods the sanctuary?" There, on the contrary, it is on the altar an unheard-of luxury of precious vases, of chiseled objects of art of great price: "God has no need," he says, "of this magnificence; have you then forgotten your vow of poverty?" and he does not fear to break with his own hand on the floor everything he finds unworthy of the simplicity of Saint Francis and the severe majesty of worship. However, he almost always found only praise to give to his brothers, and the further he advanced in his inspection tour, the more he congratulated himself in his heart to find the situation of most of the convents of the Order so flourishing and so perfectly in conformity with the thought of the founder. At the same time, he sowed his path with numerous miracles.

One day, poor nuns came to find him and explained the miserable situation of their community, begging him to do something for them; Father Lawrence mounted the pulpit and depicted the distress of these poor servants of Christ with accents that he alone knew how to find in his heart; in finishing his address, he threw his cloak into the midst of the audience, saying: "It is all that I possess, and I give it with a full heart; in your turn, give a little of your surplus," and alms abounded from all sides. The sisters insisted for a long time that the holy religious take back his cloak; but he would not consent to it. The good sisters obtained through his virtue the favor of several miraculous healings.

Another time, a little girl of seven years old, completely paralyzed and infirm, was brought before him; Father Lawrence made the sign of the cross over her, but without healing her in appearance. The next day, a little companion of the child asked her why she did not walk since she had been blessed by Father Lawrence: "Do you then not have faith?" she added ingenuously. The child, suddenly struck by this idea, concentrated all her belief on the thought that God could heal her, and immediately her legs loosened, she began to run, and threw herself joyfully into the arms of her amazed mother.

When the time for his generalship came to an end, our Blessed one might have believed that he would finally be permitted to restore his strength, exhausted by long pilgrimages and fatigues of all kinds, in rest, and to finish in a modest retirement a life that early infirmities seemed destined to shorten. This ardent wish of his heart was not to be realized: he had barely returned to Rome when the Pope set his eyes on him to fill the high post of apostolic nuncio and extraordinary ambassador of the Holy See in Austria; Emperor Rudolf was once again beset by difficulties of all kinds; the Turks were still in arms on his borders, and his brother Matthias, whom he had appointed to the government of Austria proper and Hungary, was thinking of nothing less than having himself proclaimed king of these two provinces. The Emperor urgently requested a prudent and skillful advisor in these difficult circumstances, and Father Lawrence, who already knew these regions and had rendered such real services to the sovereign, was designated in advance for such a mission. He resigned himself and departed; this time again he knew how to demonstrate the prudent wisdom and consummate skill that we already know of him; his mere presence in Austria restrained the infidels, who feared him like lightning and dared not expose themselves to a new rout; on the other hand, his touching and persuasive words succeeded in reconciling the two brothers, and the possibility of a schism in the empire was henceforth averted. The most important episode of his ministry to the Emperor was the struggle he had to sustain against the Dane Laïser, to defend the Catholic faith against the insults of the Protestant heretics. This theologian, a disciple of Luther, did not fear to preach the abolition of Catholicism in Austria, and his party, already numerous and bold, would not have failed to triumph over the weakness of the Emperor if Father Lawrence, with his lively and stirring words, had not put a check on the encroachments of these audacious men and victoriously retorted their doctrines.

A Protestant league having been formed in northern Germany for the defense of Lutheran interests, the Duke of Bavaria, a fervent Catholic, conceived the project of constituting a Catholic league to protect the states subject to the Holy See against the heretics and against the Muslims; and as the King of France, Henry IV, had promised his support to the former, the Catholic league did not hesitate, to counterbalance this powerful influence, to ask for the support of Philip III, King of Spain. It was again Fa ther Lawrence who was charg Philippe III, roi d'Espagne King of Spain and Portugal. ed with sounding out the intentions of this sovereign and winning him over to the holy cause. Philip received the religious as a man whose piety and merit he had long known, and lent a benevolent ear to his overtures. Father Lawrence had no trouble convincing him; then, the success of his mission once assured, he conceived the project of taking advantage of his presence in Spain to render a more direct and immediate service to the cause of the Church. In agreement with the intentions of Pope Paul V, he proposed to His Catholic Majesty to attempt an effort to expel the Moors from Spain. One then saw the events that had taken place a few years earlier on the banks of the Danube repeated almost identically. Under the leadership of Peter of Toledo, a small army corps headed toward the possessions of the Moors, confident in its valiant leader and above all in the presence of the holy religious who had already proven himself against the infidels. The hope of the troops was not disappointed; despite their numerical inferiority, they quickly expelled the Moors from their best positions, punished the rebellions, and took a considerable number of prisoners. The time had not yet come to completely deliver Spain from the burden it dragged at its feet; however, this first expedition, followed by full success, did not fail to usefully prepare the way for the one that was later to totally free the soil of this country. Peter of Toledo attributed all the success of this campaign to Father Lawrence, during which our Blessed one also performed several miracles.

Back in Madrid, our holy religious had only one thought: to leave a trace of his passage in that city by founding a Capuchin convent. King Philip owed him too much gratitude not to take advantage of the opportunity that offered itself to be useful to him in turn: he therefore granted Father Lawrence a vast site and a rich subsidy, so much so that before his departure, the latter had the joy of blessing the new convent that was rising from its foundations.

From Madrid, our Blessed one went to Bavaria, where, at the insistence of Duke Maximilian, he had been appointed extraordinary ambassador of the King of Spain with the consent of the Pope. All these dignities weighed heavily on Father Lawrence, who had long been thinking of returning to obscurity and ending his days in retirement; but Maximilian was the head of the league, and, always threatened by an attack from the heretics, he needed the insights of Father Lawrence, for whom he had as much veneration as friendship. He always submitted, for the Pope commanded, and he knew only how to obey. In this high post in Munich, he had the happiness of averting an imminent war several times, and of always peacefully resolving disputes that seemed capable of being settled only by the sword. The spirit of God was manifestly with him; we still have several proofs of this. "One day," says his principal biographer, "while he was celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass, after the consecration, Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him visibly in the holy host, in the form of a little child who delighted in caressing his devout servant and smiled at him with a grace entirely divine. At the celestial lights that illuminated the whole chapel, Brother Adam of Rovigo, who was serving the Mass, also saw the child Jesus, fell as if dead at the foot of the altar, and remained in this state for a quarter of an hour. Having regained his senses, he prostrated himself to adore the divine Savior until the consecrated host had resumed its sacramental form. What were then the emotions of the soul of our Blessed one so tender!... only an inhabitant of heaven could describe them."

"About a month later, one saw on the head of Father Lawrence, at the holy altar, three crowns in the shape of a miter, resplendent with brightness: two of white color, the third adorned with red fringes; one could see and contemplate them for a quarter of an hour. Upon disappearing from the eyes of those present, they remained visible to our Blessed one, whose soul, so closely united to Jesus Christ, had already had a foretaste of the glory of the virtues of which these crowns were the symbol."

Among the miracles he also performed at this time, we will cite the healing of the Duchess of Bavaria, who seemed to be suffering from an incurable hysteria and condemned to irremediable sterility; after having celebrated the holy sacrifice at length in her presence and for her intention, he blessed her and immediately delivered her from all her pains; moreover, he announced to her the birth of a son, heir to the name, merits, and rank of his father. This news filled her with joy, as well as the Duke and his entire court.

Another time, in a public ceremony, a poor paralytic who did not seem destined to remain long in this world was brought before him at the church, lying on a stretcher. "Rise," Father Lawrence said to him as he passed by, and the unfortunate man stood up on his legs, but without being able to move from his place. As people were astonished not to see him move more, he said to those around him: "When Father Lawrence returns, he will order me to walk, and I will walk." Indeed, the holy religious passed by him again and said: "Walk, my son, and be blessed, because you have believed"; and the paralytic, filled with joy, began to run, announcing his deliverance to all.

The meeting of the general chapter recalled our Blessed one to Rome, who parted with regret from his beloved brothers of Venice, whom he was never to see again; as if he had sensed it, he bade them touching farewells and more than once left shreds of his clothing in the hands of the crowd, who vied for them as precious relics. Arriving in the Eternal City, he received visits from the greatest personages and the holiest prelates, who venerated him as a saint and loved him as a father. Our Blessed one received these homages with modesty and often bowed first to the knees of those who had come precisely to express their deep respect to him.

He was once again meditating in his heart the thought of asking the chapter for the favor of a pious retreat, desiring more ardently than ever to shut himself away in a convent and be entirely absorbed in meditation and prayer; but events decided otherwise, and one last mission, more thorny than all the others, was to crown his long career, which ended in these negotiations.

To briefly set forth the facts that determined Father Lawrence's departure for Portugal, we recall that the Kingdom of Naples then belonged to the Spanish crown, which had entrusted its government to a viceroy, the Duke of Ossuna. This man, of a dissembling, skillful, but disloyal character, had for some time been indulging in exactions that revolted everyone. Th duc d'Ossuna Viceroy of Naples accused of extortion. e complaints that arose from all sides soon became so sharp that, faced with the threat of civil war and a general conflagration of the kingdom, the Holy Father resolved to intervene and inform the King of Spain of his representative's misdeeds. The principal inhabitants of Naples met secretly and unanimously adopted the resolution to charge Father Lawrence with carrying their grievances before Philip III. In vain did our holy religious try to excuse himself, alleging his age and his growing infirmities; in vain did he explain to the delegates that one of their own would present the situation much more clearly; the Pope, when consulted, confirmed the choice made by the city's inhabitants, and Father Lawrence had to leave once again. Such sacrifices are those of a man of courage, as much as a man of heart; he who, broken by age and pain, took up the cause of others and sacrificed his life for the reparation of an injustice, was indeed the man of God and the disciple of Saint Francis, having no other torch than faith, no other means than his word, and no other goal than the happiness of his fellow men.

After having miraculously escaped the satellites of the viceroy, who had him sought like a thief and would not have recoiled from a crime to prevent him from accomplishing his holy mission, Father Lawrence went to Rome to receive the papal blessing, as well as the instructions of the Holy Father for His Catholic Majesty. From Rome, he wrote to the Duke of Bavaria, for whom he had such a lively friendship, and announced that he was leaving for a long journey which, given his age, might well be his last before his passage to heaven; he bade him touching farewells; he ardently recommended that he always safeguard the interests of the faith, as he had not ceased to do in the past, and to teach his son early that it is less meritorious for a man to be the sovereign of a great nation than the submissive subject of the King of kings.

In Genoa, where our Blessed one first disembarked, he received the farewells of an enthusiastic crowd that threatened to keep him in sight so that he could not flee; the Fathers of all the convents shared almost the exaggerated sentiments of the crowd, and it was nearly the case that Father Lawrence was forced to abandon his journey. One morning, however, under the cover of a disguise, he was able to reach the port and set sail without being otherwise disturbed. This journey, like all the others, was marked by numerous miracles. In Genoa, he met a poor blind man who, warned no doubt by heaven of our Blessed one's passage, cried out with confidence: "Father, heal me." "How do you know," replied Father Lawrence, "who I am, and if I can heal you?" The poor man was very troubled by this question; nothing, in fact, could have assured him of Father Lawrence's presence, if not a warning from above; but, after a moment, he resumed with the same faith: "You are Father Lawrence; Father, heal me." Our religious, himself struck by such a prodigy, stretched his hand over him, and by this sign restored his sight. Paralytics, the lame, and the blind were likewise healed by his intercession, which makes it easy to understand why the city of Genoa saw him depart with difficulty. At sea, new miracles were performed. Here it was a furious storm that he conjured with a sign of the cross, as formerly in the Gulf of Venice; there it was a fishing boat, which he piously blessed while promising it an abundant catch; and in less than an hour the nets were so full that the boat, near sinking under the weight of the fish, returned in all haste to port.

Finally, they arrived in Barcelona, and our Blessed one disembarked to the applause of an enthusiastic multitude that surrounded him, shouting: "There is the Saint, there is the Saint." But Father Lawrence was in a hurry to reach Madrid, and he did not stop in Barcelona. Whatever his high rank as ambassador, whatever the importance of the mission he was about to fulfill, our religious did not want to depart from the ordinary habits of the Friars Minor on a journey: he therefore resolved to go on foot, begging for his bread on his way, and asking for shelter from the rain and the cold from the trees on the road or the shepherds' huts. If night or his gout attacks surprised him at a great distance from any habitation, he rested on God the care of providing for his food, and he never lacked it. Finally, after two hundred leagues of a painful journey, Father Lawrence arrived in Madrid; but what was his displeasure to learn that the king had just left this residence to go to Portugal, a kingdom which, through the death of King Sebastian, had just been reunited to his crown! Our Blessed one therefore armed himself with new courage, and, after a few days of rest, continued his journey. He arrived exhausted in Lisbon, and yet immediately asked to see the king; an audience was granted to him, and our Blessed one was finally able to set forth his mission before the king, who was charmed to see and hear him; in a second interview that Philip granted him that very evening, he developed all the Lisbonne Port of departure for missions to the Orient. grievances of the Neapolitans against the viceroy, depicted in dark colors the situation of this unfortunate people, and boldly asked the king for the dismissal of the Duke of Ossuna. However, the latter had powerful protectors at court; he made all his friends act and sought to avert by all means the peril with which he felt threatened; but the frank and bold word of Father Lawrence did not take long to confound all the impostures; the warmth of his language, when he spoke of the oppressed, the truth that manifestly overflowed from his heart and spread over his entire countenance, triumphed over all the ruses, and after ten days the king signed the dismissal of the Duke of Ossuna.

Neither the king nor Father Lawrence were to know the happy changes that the dismissal of the viceroy was to bring to the situation of the Kingdom of Naples; death was about to snatch them both, one near the other, as if the Lord had wished, in his wisdom, that the naturally weak soul of Philip III should receive, at the moment of leaving the earth, the vivifying teachings and the powerful consolations that the heart of our holy religious knew so well how to spread. Father Lawrence boldly predicted his death, and although he himself was to precede him to the grave, he gave him this warning to encourage him to put his kingdom's affairs in order, and to think seriously about his eternity.

It was in the year 1619, Father Lawrence was approaching his end, and he had a premonition of it; when he went to bed following a gout attack that did not seem more serious than the others, he said immediately to the two Fathers who did not leave him that it was his last illness. A rather violent fever tired him night and day, and his pains, having become unbearable, prevented him from making any movement; he then made his arrangements to finish his career holily before losing the lucidity of his mind; having called his two companions to his side, Father Jerome of Casanova and Father John-Mary of Montfort, he had them approach his bed, and looking at them with tenderness, holding their hands in his, he said to them: "My dear brothers, here is the moment when my poor soul is going to be delivered from the prison of its body, where it has been groaning for so long, to enter into its eternity. I ask your pardon for all the troubles I have caused you, although involuntarily, and for all the bad examples I have given you." Here the holy man, deeply moved, kept silent and began to weep; then, resuming his speech a moment later, he added: "I thank you with all my heart for the great charity you have shown toward me, as well as for the labors and fatigues that you have accepted and endured so patiently for me until this day: may God reward you by filling you with all his graces! From now on, you are alone here, far from your country and your province, exposed to new tribulations; but have confidence, count firmly on the divine assistance and the weak contribution of my prayers. I ask you again, beloved brothers, to go on my behalf, after my death, to prostrate yourselves at the feet of our most reverend Father General, and to beg him to forgive me for the faults I have committed since my entry into this holy religion, as well as for the scandals by which I may have afflicted him. Thank him for his kindness to me and recommend me to his prayers, assuring him that the step I am charging you to take, I would have taken myself if my strength had permitted it. And since, in his capacity as supreme head, he represents the entire Order, ask that he accept, in the name of all the provinces that have been entrusted to me, and especially my dear province of Venice, the testimony of humility, affection, and gratitude that I humbly deposit at his feet."

We have reported these touching farewells according to Father Lawrence of Aosta, because they show well what unction and what humility were on the lips of our Blessed one when he spoke of himself, even on the threshold of eternity. He also recommended to his brothers a large cross full of relics that he always wore on his chest and by which he performed so many glorious miracles. It was a gift from the Duke of Bavaria, which Lawrence intended for the convent of the Poor Clares of Brindes, his native city; these nuns always kept it among their most precious relics.

The supreme hour was approaching for our Blessed one; his final moments were those of a saint. Although tortured by suffering, he found a smile and a kind word for all those who came to bid him a final farewell; Peter of Toledo, with whom he had driven out the Moors, came to visit him on his bed of pain and began to melt into tears: "Do not weep for me," said Father Lawrence, "I am touching eternal bliss, but reserve these tears for suffering humanity, which has so much need of compassion and generous examples." The Extreme Unction was administered to him by two Observant friars of the Lisbon convent; provided with this supreme consolation, his face blossomed in a radiant serenity, and his lips repeated softly these simple words: "God be praised! May the blessed Virgin Mary be praised." Father John-Mary of Montfort wanted to relieve his chest, oppressed by the weight of the large cross hanging from his neck; but our Blessed one pressed it harder to his heart, signaling that he wanted to embrace it tightly until his last breath. After he had extended his hand toward those present with a supreme effort, to give everyone his final blessing, his soul flew toward the Lord in the abode of eternal bliss. It was July 22, 1619: Father Lawrence of Brindes was sixty years old, and he had spent forty-five of them in religion.

We refrain from painting the sorrow that this sad event brought to every soul: King Philip was dismayed by it, and when the news of this death arrived in Italy, it was a time of general mourning. The body of the Blessed left Lisbon to be brought back to Venice; but at Villafranca, the Poor Clares of the city, aided by the daughter of Peter of Toledo herself, seized this holy relic and buried it in their convent. The two companions of our religious were greatly afflicted by this: they had promised to bring this sacred deposit to the midst of his brothers in Venice; all their efforts to achieve this goal remained useless; they only obtained permission to take his heart, a part of which was given to the Duke of Bavaria, and the other to the convent of the Poor Clares of Brindisi, along with the large cross that was intended for them.

To summarize in a few lines what we have just written about Father Lawrence of Brindisi, we cannot do better than to report, according to Father Lawrence of Aosta, the portrait drawn of our Blessed by Abbot Tisbiardo in his panegyric delivered in Modena:

« Father Lawrence of Brindisi was a man honored by Popes, esteemed by princes, and acclaimed by the people. Virtuous to the point of heroism, he was humble without baseness, magnanimous without ostentation, and courageous without pride. His faith would have moved mountains, his hope defied all trials, and his charity knew no bounds. Uniting the active life with the contemplative life, he devoted himself to incessant labors for the defense of the Church and the salvation of his neighbor, without ever losing sight of the holy presence of the Divine Majesty. Invested with that strength from above to which nothing resists, he overcame all difficulties and overturned all the obstacles that the malice of men or the powers of hell opposed to his enterprises. Having become the scourge of heresy and impiety, he dealt them, by the sole power of his word, harder blows than the princes of the earth could have done with their armies. God, who had predestined him for such great things, had anticipated him with His richest blessings and had endowed him with those natural qualities that exert a sovereign empire over men: a tall stature, a broad and high forehead, piercing and gentle eyes, a graceful and smiling mouth, a noble face radiating intelligence, a just, lively, and penetrating mind, a tender and generous heart, a grave yet attractive appearance, a language always dignified but imbued with a sweet amenity; all this embellished, enhanced by a virtue that shone in all his features, in all his gestures, and in all his words, formed a whole so decisive that it was impossible to see him without feeling dominated, subjugated, drawn as if by a superior soul, without venerating him, without loving him. In a word, he was the most prodigious man of this century and the most useful to the Church ».

Five years after the death of Father Lawrence, petitions were addressed to Pope Urban VIII by Emperor Ferdinand II, by the Duke of Bavaria, and by the guardians of various convents for the beatification of the holy religious. Fifty years later, according to the express Rule instituted by the Sovereign Pontiff, the trials that had begun underwent a new instruction, and the Congregation of Rites began its investigation into the writings left in Venice by Father Lawrence. However, as the formalities to be fulfilled had undergone various delays, it was not until March 29, 1783, that the Congregation of Rites decided unanimously that one could safely proceed to his beatification. Pope Pius VI approved this decision by a decree of the following April 17, and on Jun pape Pie VI Pope cited as having approved the cult of Julie in 1821. e 1 of the same year, he published, in the most solemn manner, the decree of beatification in the Vatican Basilica; he set the feast of our Blessed for July 7.

Here are the facts that have been most generally reproduced in images of Saint Lawrence of Brindisi: 1st, the Child Jesus appears to him while he is celebrating Holy Mass and caresses him with His little hands; 2nd, he is at the head of the Christian squadrons repelling the Turkish army: the valiant Duke of Mercœur confessed that the presence of the Blessed Lawrence had won him many generals before Székesfehérvár; 3rd, as with all preachers of the holy war, one can place in his ha nd the stan Albe royale Christian victory against the Turks in which Lawrence played a major spiritual role. dard of the cross or a military flag.

Saint Lawrence is particularly honored in Lisbon, in Brindisi, in Villafranca del Bierzo, and among the Capuchins.

## WRITINGS OF THE BLESSED LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI.

The writings that Father Lawrence left behind, and which remained in manuscript, are as follows:

1st, Dogmatic dissertation against Luther and Laïser, in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek; 2 vols. in-fol.; 2nd, Sermons for Lent; 2 vols. in-fol.; 3rd, Sermons for Advent; 2 vols. in-fol.; 4th, Dominicales; 3 vols. in-fol.; 5th, Sermons on the Gospels; 1 vol. in-fol.; 6th, Panegyric of the Saints; 1 vol. in-fol.; 7th, Discourses on the Blessed Virgin; 1 vol. in-fol.; 8th, Explanation of Genesis; 1 vol. in-4°; 9th, Response to a libel by Laïser; 1 vol. in-fol.; 10th, Explanation of the prophecies of Ezekiel; 1 vol. in-4°; 11th, Four letters on the perfect observance of the Seraphic Rule; 1 vol. in-4°; 12th, Treatise on preaching for the new preacher; 1 vol. in-4°; 13th, Plans and materials for sermons; 1 vol. in-fol.

The examination they underwent before the Congregation of Rites was entirely favorable to them, and one must regret, with the privileged persons who had the happiness of perusing them, that these solid writings have never been printed and made public for the great glory of our Blessed and the edification of the Catholic faithful.

Seraphic Palm.